Activated carbon has been commonly used as a sorbent for removing gaseous contaminants from air. In many known activated carbon compositions, the activated carbon is impregnated with a metal or metal salt, which assists in removing a gaseous contaminant from the air. For example, it has been disclosed that hydrogen cyanide (HCN) can be removed from air by impregnating an activated carbon cloth with a metal carbonate salt that contains divalent cations of manganese, cobalt, nickel, copper, and zinc (see Alder et al., The Adsorption of Hydrogen Cyanide by Activated Carbon Cloth, Carbon, v. 26, n. 5, pp. 701-711, 713-721 (1988); see also UK Patent Application GB 2,187,725). It also has been disclosed that activated carbon can be (i) treated with a salt that has a coefficient of solubility greater than 1.times.10.sup.-2 grams per gram of water (for example, a nitrate, sulfate, tartrate, acetate, or chloride salts that contain cations of zinc, cadmium, copper, nickel, silver, cobalt, or barium), (ii) dried, (iii) treated with a metal salt that can be sodium or potassium carbonate, vanadate, chromate, tungstenate, permanganate, and molybdenate, and (iv) then washed thoroughly with excess water (see Czechoslovakian Patent 175,003).